Nice job guys. One of these years I'll actually stop talking about going and actually go :)
Nice job guys. One of these years I'll actually stop talking about going and actually go :)
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
You'd have a great time as long as there's some snow- you should definitely roll the dice and sign up one of these years.
As promised, the War Weasel's woods adventure. Damage:
watching that video, I have no idea what they should have done differently. dug in more with more acceleration maybe?
In reply to lnlogauge :
On the corner itself? Basically was just too icy to make it at their entry speed, the only thing that might have kept them on the good side of the bank would be hitting the bank with the whole side of the car instead... but then you run the risk of breaking control arms, debeading tires, or rolling the car. Overall it went pretty well, considering.
I'm amazed it drove out of the ditch.
Great job! Sorry I didn't catch yor success sooner.
Some more photos from John Ruschmeyer and Ethan Lovett, respectively:
I especially like this sequence from Ethan, this is a corner where we came in a little too hot, grabbed handbrake, then powered out- you can see it all in the rear wheelspeed and the steering angle:
I cleaned all the salt off the car and got it up on the lift- sometimes I forget that the paint is still pretty shiny:
So, what's the grand total of the damage from this event? Well, other than a slightly floppier front bumper cover, this appears to be the full extent of it:
The ziptie on the other side is broken too. Such carnage! 
About those tractionized tires- these are the rears from the beginning of day 2, you can see the little rubber bits all began ripping off at different lengths and running into each other; I actually think this type of tire might survive longer if I groove them in the future, to give the siped pieces some room to move without rubbing and generating heat, but that's just a theory.
Also borrowed some decent scales to confirm what we found out when we got weighed at the event- the car is a big fatty:
Looks like the scales at work, which I used to benchmark the car weight throughout construction, are off by about 150lbs. This is annoying but not something I'm going to spend a great deal of time or money chasing- given that we're in a limited class, there's not a ton of stuff that I can cut out, and the low hanging fruit as far as weight (windows, battery, AC) all costs money to do something about. Looking on the bright side, this means we're actually faster than we thought since we're somewhat competitive at this weight, and with us in the car the weight distribution is a pretty balanced 53% front.
Photo gallery at the end of this Hagerty article has a nice shot of your car. https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/cars-and-coffee-leave-you-cold-light-a-bonfire-at-michigans-winter-rally/
In reply to trumant :
There's an interior shot of our car in there too, cool! I talked to the author/photographer a good amount at parc expose, he seemed genuinely interested in rally and especially how (relatively) normal people can get involved in it- maybe we'll get to see more rally coverage from Hagerty in the future.
So what'd we learn at Sno*Drift?
Car:
-The new engine wiring connector held up with zero issues
-Tractionized Blizzaks work pretty well but have a halflife of a few stages on the rear; I would take more if I found them but probably not pay a ton to have new ones made vs running standard flavor ice tires
-Still happy with the lighting for night stages, maybe a tiny bit more slightly off-center would be good but we were also very sideways
-At one point the throttle pedal stop fell off, I should glue that on
Driving:
-Could have pushed harder in a few places, could have pushed less in a few. I should aspire to find this mix on gravel
-I want to be able to always feel like I'm reading the road this well, it felt like I only got surprised by the grip level a few times
Other:
-The other BRZ was running Alpha Verity snow tires, which seemed to work pretty well. May explore those in the future
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:In reply to trumant :
There's an interior shot of our car in there too, cool! I talked to the author/photographer a good amount at parc expose, he seemed genuinely interested in rally and especially how (relatively) normal people can get involved in it- maybe we'll get to see more rally coverage from Hagerty in the future.
Ironically, I have Hagerty insurance on the Porsche and the Raider, but they wouldn't give me street coverage on the rally car ;)
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah they are pretty no go on rally cars...
No updates on the car since we were at Sandblast this weekend camping, volunteering, and for Sara, codriving at the last second. We had a lovely private campsite in the woods at H Cooper Black:
Sara hopped in with a guy trying to finish his first rally, whose codriver couldn't make it- so notes were edited in a tent, a borrowed halo seat from Andrew Sims was installed, and they were off:
Unfortunately their rally only lasted 3 stages- the car kinda disintegrated, losing the skidplate, cracking the oil pan, destroying the radiator hoses, and a number of other little things, eventually getting flat towed back to service by their RX7 teammate. The driver seemed to still be in good spirits about it and naturally Sara wasn't phased:
I volunteered as Competitor Relations Officer- when in doubt, present the puppy first before approaching the competitors:
All in all, a good time, lovely weather, and a well run event.
Side note, we've put over 15k miles on the Tundra since purchasing it around this time last year! It got about 16mpg on the highway during the flatter sections of this trip and seems to be doing just fine.
I saw Sara's FB post about co-driving, but I didn't notice he is running a VW Mk IV. I'm curious what other modifications he did to the car. Mainly suspension.
The oil pan is definitely exposed even for street driving. I managed to rip an aftermarket skid plate off my wagon when I hit a road ditch at speed before I realized it was there. Fortunately, the plate did its job and oil pan was mostly unscathed. I definitely was careful for awhile until I could bang the plate back into shape and reinstall it.
I guess from now on, whenever you guys attend a rally Sara will bring all of her gear whether you're running or not? 
In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :
KSport suspension, which is not really rally suspension- I generally tell people they'd be better off with Bilstein HDs. The car might've been OK on a smooth gravel rally, but there are some big bumps at Sandblast that took their toll quickly.
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Not familiar with that KSport, but there are a lot of questionable VW suspension kits out there. I'd recommend contacting Ground Control and having them put together a coil-over kit that raises everything a bit and is much stiffer. I knew someone in the Philly Region ages ago who had a GTI with it, so they should have the specs on file somewhere.
Ksport is a cheapo Taiwanese brand, made by the same company as D2, which I have on my AE92 - they're not bad for the money but the shock damping is an area where they don't hide their cheapness well. I know they sell some beefy inverted-damper coilovers under the D2 brand.
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Oh... and curse you for sending me back down the rabbit hole of searching for an old Mk IV GTI to turn into a "do everything" rat-racer. Some day I hope to have time for that. Right now it looks like all of my projects are on hold at least until Aug as I'm back working in NH.
Pretty sure Shine suspension used to make springs for the MkIV. That with Bilstein yellows was the ticket IIRC.
Is that John G. from Michigan(?). If it is, I've run into him and his dad at both Detroit region and NEOhio SCCA rallycross events. When I first met them they had, I think, a Talon with the turbo turned up a bit. I knew they were planning to get into rally but haven't talked to them in years. I don't really know them but both seemed constantly happy. Glad to see him running.
Edit: And of course big ups to Sara for filling in. That's awesome.
In reply to AxeHealey :
Sounds like the same guys yeah!
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Sweet!
Oil and air filter changed, and I installed new front rotors- the pads were still at half thickness and they're pricey Hawks so I kept them. The rotors were starting to show surface cracking beyond what I was comfortable with so I figured it was worth swapping them out.
Apparently this is the only picture I took, after bedding them in:
I also swapped the worn out pair of tractionized Blizzaks off their wheels and mounted up my last two MRFs, so I have 6 new MRF mediums and 6 lightly used Hoosier hards all in 185/65R15 ready to go in addition to my various worn out gravels.
Last week we had to say goodbye to Kila, the greatest rally dog, roadtrip partner, garage helper, and the centerpoint of all things positive in our lives. Here are some favorite racing and car related images of her for everyone:
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